Brussels, May 10, 2016 [09:00 CET] – Confo Therapeutics, an emerging drug discovery company, announced today that Dr Christel Menet is joining the company as Chief Scientific Officer, effective now. Dr. Menet will lead the research activities and build Confo Therapeutics’ pipeline of development programs targeting G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that are currently considered undruggable for a wide range of conditions.

Dr. Menet joins Confo Therapeutics from Galapagos, where she advanced through positions of increasing responsibilities, most recently as Director of Chemistry. Dr. Menet has a strong track record progressing lead candidates into preclinical development. She is the inventor of filgotinib, Galapagos’ lead program currently in phase III, and was responsible for its full discovery track. Dr. Menet received a Chemical Engineering degree at Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier, France and obtained a PhD in chemistry at the University of Manchester, UK.

“Christel brings over thirteen years of experience to Confo,” explains Stephane van Rooijen, MD, CEO. “Her significant expertise in drug discovery complements Confo’s current leadership team and she shares our dedication to discover and develop effective therapies. With Christel on board, we are ready to further expand the drug development team driving our pipeline forward.”

“I am thrilled to join Confo Therapeutics at an exciting time, and am impressed by the broad applicability of the break-through CONFO® technology allowing medically relevant GPCRs to be stabilized in their active signaling state, revealing new binding pockets accessible for drug discovery. I’m looking forward to contribute to the selection and direction of Confo Therapeutics’ pipeline candidates”, said Dr. Christel Menet.

With the appointment of Dr. Menet, Prof. Jan Steyaert, Scientific Founder, will serve as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board and continues to remain closely involved with the company. Prof. Steyaert’s breakthrough discoveries on GPCRs at VIB and the University of Brussels are the building blocks of Confo Therapeutics, generating new treatment methods for a wide range of disease conditions that are hard to treat or even untreatable.

-ENDS-

About Confo Therapeutics

Confo Therapeutics was founded in 2015 as VIB-VUB spin-off and benefits from the support of Capricorn Venture Partners, MINTS, PMV, QBIC, SOFI, V-Bio Ventures and VIB. Confo Therapeutics is a drug discovery company building a portfolio of first-in-class programs on pathway selective drugs. Driven by its proprietary CONFO® technology to empower the discovery of novel agonists for superior therapeutic intervention in a wide range of diseases.

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are attractive drug targets in the treatment of conditions, because they play an essential part in many life processes and therefore also in diseases. GPCRs are flexible on-off switches located in the cell membrane and pass signals from outside into the cell through conformational changes.

CONFO® technology reveals new druggable pockets by stabilizing the medically relevant active signaling state of the receptor, by using Confobodies (camelid single domain antibodies). Performing drug screening on the Confobody stabilized signaling state of the GPCR makes the target accessible for drug discovery. CONFO® technology is adding value in the drug discovery value chain beyond high throughput screening, including structure-based screening.

Confo Therapeutics is committed to the development of new medicines to treat diseases with high unmet need.